


Moriarty (Not Mycroft) Texts Sherlock and John in The Great Game

by wellthengameover



Series: Sherlock Meta [11]
Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Analysis, Episode: s01e03 The Great Game, M-theory, Meta, Other, Sherlock Meta
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-20
Updated: 2015-11-20
Packaged: 2018-05-02 15:00:04
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,164
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5252561
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wellthengameover/pseuds/wellthengameover
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mycroft only gives Sherlock the Bruce Partington Plans case because Jim makes him. It’s highly convenient that the missile plans that Mycroft gives Sherlock at the beginning of the show just happen to be the last pip for Jim’s game. If Mycroft really wanted those missile plans found, it would be a job for the secret service. MI6 would have much better resources for recovering the plans than Sherlock, yet Mycroft gives the case to Sherlock. Jim wants Sherlock to have the case.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Moriarty (Not Mycroft) Texts Sherlock and John in The Great Game

We know that Mycroft only gives Sherlock the Bruce Partington Plans case because [Jim makes him](http://loudest-subtext-in-television.tumblr.com/post/79041544289/m-theory-mycroft-moriarty-and-magnussens). It’s _highly convenient_ that the missile plans that Mycroft gives Sherlock at the beginning of the show just _happen_ to be the last pip for Jim’s game. If Mycroft really wanted those missile plans found, it would be a job for the secret service. MI6 would have much better resources for recovering the plans than Sherlock, yet Mycroft gives the case to Sherlock. Jim wants Sherlock to have the case.

The scene where Mycroft gives John the case (Sherlock won’t take the file so Mycroft gives it to John) is very odd. At the time, we think it’s just because Mycroft is very odd - we really don’t know him at all, yet, in TGG. But now that we know him better, it gets more complicated, not less.

> SHERLOCK: If you’re so keen, why don’t _you_ investigate it?  
>  _…_  
>  MYCROFT: Besides, a case like this – it requires … _(he grimaces in distaste)_ … legwork.  
>  _(_ _Picking up a folder which he had put on the table beside him, Mycroft steps forward and offers the folder to his brother but Sherlock just looks back at him stubbornly. **Grimacing and poking his tongue into the corner of his mouth, Mycroft turns and offers the folder to John instead.** )_ ([x](http://arianedevere.livejournal.com/46716.html))
> 
> _ _  
> 

Mycroft doesn’t have tells like this; whatever he’s letting through, he’s letting through on purpose. Mycroft’s toothache is hugely obvious and very odd. Why include it? It’s obviously for some purpose: it’s not real. What Sherlock infers later is that it’s the reason for Mycroft texting instead of calling:

> JOHN: [Mycroft]’s texted you eight times. Must be important.  
>  SHERLOCK: Then why didn’t he cancel his dental appointment?  
>  JOHN: His what?  
>  SHERLOCK: **Mycroft never texts if he can talk.** Look, Andrew West stole the missile plans, tried to sell them, got his head smashed in for his pains. End of story. The only mystery is this: why is my brother so determined to bore me when somebody else is being so delightfully interesting? ([x](http://arianedevere.livejournal.com/46716.html))

Sherlock thinks the missile plans aren’t very important because Mycroft didn’t bother to cancel his dental appointment for them, which Sherlock knows because Mycroft is texting. But Mycroft’s toothache is fake, so he faked a reason that Sherlock would be convinced he would text instead of call. Why do that? Sherlock can ignore Mycroft’s texts just as well as his calls so there’s no benefit to Mycroft to text instead of calling.

But there is one big reason to text instead of calling: when you don’t want your voice recognized. **Jim is the one texting Sherlock and John, pretending to be Mycroft.** Jim steals people’s voices all throughout this episode to talk to Sherlock. He pretends to be Jim-from-IT to meet Sherlock. He wants as many sources of communication with Sherlock as possible. He wants as many chances to intrigue Sherlock as possible.

Here’s how we know it’s Jim:

 **1) The texts are signed wrong.** When Sherlock gets a text in TGG, it’s signed _Mycroft_ :

We never see Mycroft send anything. But we _do_ see Mycroft send Sherlock a text in THoB. He signs it  _M_ :

 

We know Mycroft sent the one in THoB because we see him do it. We never see who is texting Sherlock in TGG. Jim doesn’t need to have Mycroft’s physical phone to send the texts; he’s Jim-from-IT. There’s technology that can definitely do that.

**2)** **Sherlock gets the text, ignores it, and then Jim-from-IT visits within moments.**

> JOHN: Text from your brother.  
>  SHERLOCK: Delete it.  
>  JOHN: Delete it?  
>  SHERLOCK: Missile plans are out of the country now. Nothing we can do about it.  
>  _(John looks at the message again, which reads:_  
>  _RE: BRUCE-PARTINGTON PLANS_  
>  _Any progress on Andrew_  
>  _West’s death?_  
>  _Mycroft_  
>  JOHN: Well, Mycroft thinks there is. **He’s texted you eight times.** Must be important.  
>  SHERLOCK: Then why didn’t he cancel his dental appointment?  
>  JOHN: His what?  
>  SHERLOCK: Mycroft never texts if he can talk. Look, Andrew West stole the missile plans, tried to sell them, got his head smashed in for his pains. End of story. The only mystery is this: why is my brother so determined to bore me when somebody else is being so delightfully interesting? ([x](http://arianedevere.livejournal.com/46716.html))

Jim is so desperate. He’s texted Sherlock _eight times._ Sending eight texts doesn’t sound like Mycroft: he’s never desperate, no matter how bad things get, and he would know more and more texts would be more likely to make Sherlock _not_ take the case _._ Jim texts Sherlock to try to get him to connect three things in his mind (the Bruce Partington Plans (what the text is about), the pip cases (what Sherlock is currently doing), and Jim-from-IT (he enters at this moment)), and then comes in exactly 15 seconds later _._

Jim probably hopes Sherlock will make a connection between the three things: Jim’s always hoping Sherlock will be cleverer than he is and pay more attention to Jim than he does.

 **3) After Jim sees John and Sherlock’s relationship - and after Sherlock hasn’t replied to _eight texts_ \- he starts texting John.** Jim shows up and sees that John and Sherlock’s relationship is a lot closer than he was expecting.

He’s got 221B bugged; he’s read the blogs, but he might not have been expecting John to be _quite_ that territorial. He’s now sure who he needs to use as the last hostage.

It’s not like Jim has any interest in John beyond Sherlock, but he’s jealous, and even if he can’t get Sherlock interested in him with _eight texts in one morning_ , he still needs the Bruce Partington case to be solved because it’s the last pip. So he gets John to start it, so Sherlock will finish it. Later that night, John asks Sherlock if he can help with the case, and immediately, Jim texts John about the Bruce Partington Plans: time to get John away from Sherlock and work on finding the Plans at the same time:

>   
> 
> 
> JOHN: Can I help? I want to help. There’s only five hours left.  
>  _(His phone sounds a text alert. He gets the phone from his trouser pocket and looks at the message. It reads:_  
>  _Any developments?_  
>  _Mycroft Holmes_  
>  JOHN: It’s your brother. He’s texting _me_ now.How does he know my number? ([x](http://arianedevere.livejournal.com/46716.html))

When I watched this, I thought John’s line “How does [Mycroft] know my number?” was a little odd: John’s been kidnapped, and he saw Mycroft move the security cameras around. _Of course_ Mycroft knows his phone number. It could just be a joke that Mycroft _is_ the British government, but it might also be a heads-up to the audience: something more is going on here than the surface text. Don’t forget [deducingbbcsherlock](http://deducingbbcsherlock.tumblr.com/)’s 100% accurate Quip Rule:

> The Quip Rule: _If the dialogue makes you laugh, the humor is likely distracting you from something important._

Anyway, John tries to help Sherlock, and Jim distracts him with the Bruce Partington Plans:

Sherlock sends John to see Mycroft, who plays up the toothache hardcore:

John isn’t as observant as Sherlock, so Mycroft has to make it more obvious. But when he talks, his voice is fine. He’s faking it.

But there’s the question: _why_ is Mycroft doing this? We know [he’s under Jim’s thumb](http://wellthengameover.tumblr.com/post/97328231152/how-we-know-mycroft-is-under-jims-thumb), but this goes beyond just allowing Jim to do what Jim wants and into actively helping him. Here’s why:

Jim came to Mycroft and said “Help me play twisted games with your brother or I’ll kill him,” and Mycroft said no. So Jim blew up the flat, proving he’s perfectly capable and perfectly willing to carry out his threat. The next morning, Mycroft shows up with the Bruce Partington case and a willingness to fake a toothache.

(This actually also explains why Mycroft is in a really bad mood all throughout this episode. Mycroft’s never exactly “friendly,” but he’s more threatening and creepy in TGG even than he was when he kidnapped John in ASiP. He’s lit here like a villain, that’s how angry he is:

Compared to THoB:

Mycroft’s anger and villainy creepiness in TGG was so bad that I noticed it the first time I watched this when it first aired, and at the time I assumed it was because Sherlock wasn’t working on the Bruce Partington Plans. But since we now know Mycroft only ever gave those to Sherlock because Jim told him to, Sherlock not working on them would make Mycroft happy. But suddenly becoming Jim Moriarty’s best pawn would definitely piss him off.)

**5) The next time Jim texts John, he gives him a clue.**

Mycroft wouldn’t do this because Mycroft wouldn’t text John. Mycroft only wants Sherlock to take the Bruce Partington Plans case because Jim made him. Mycroft wouldn’t be trying to make John take it; he’d be trying to get Sherlock and John to ignore it so Jim wouldn’t be able to do anything to Sherlock. Instead, the text helps John advance the case. Jim is always dropping clues for his cases because he gets bored waiting for Sherlock to figure them out.

**6) The next (last) time Jim texts John, Jim’s getting tired of waiting and being the only one playing this game.**

** **

Jim knows Sherlock hasn’t even started working on the Bruce Partington Plans yet - or even really noticed them - and he’s ticked off. The Bruce Partington Plans are the fifth pip - the pip they never get a picture clue for on the pink phone. But Jim does give them a fifth pip: he texts this to John immediately after Sherlock solves the Vermeer pip - the fourth pip.

What this text does is make John go out to the train tracks and work on the case - where Sherlock finally joins him, having figured out the Bruce Partington Plans are the fifth pip:

> MISS WENCESLAS: … But I didn’t know how to go about convincing the world the picture was genuine. It was just an idea – a spark which he blew into a flame.  
>  **SHERLOCK _(sharply)_ : Who?**
> 
> MISS WENCESLAS: I don’t know … I mean, it took a long time, but eventually I was put in touch with people … _his_ people.  
>  **_(Sherlock slowly begins to sit up in his chair, his expression becoming more concentrated.)_**  
>  MISS WENCESLAS: Well, there was never any real contact; just messages … whispers.  
>  **_(Sherlock leans closer to her, his face intense.)_**  
>  **SHERLOCK: And did those whispers have a _name_?**  
>  MISS WENCESLAS: Moriarty. ([x](http://arianedevere.livejournal.com/46716.html))
> 
>   
> 

The camera focuses on Sherlock thinking for 14 seconds after Miss Wenceslas says “Moriarty.” Sherlock is figuring out that the Bruce Partington Plans are connected to Jim, too, because the very next thing he does is show up to where John is at the train tracks with the Bruce Partington case solved.

> SHERLOCK: Knew you’d get there eventually. West wasn’t killed here; that’s why there was so little blood.  
>  JOHN: How long have you been following me?  
>  SHERLOCK: Since the start. You don’t think I’d give up on a case like this just to spite my brother, do you?  
>  SHERLOCK: Come on. Got a bit of burglary to do.

Then they go straight to get the missile plans, and something important happens:

> SHERLOCK: **The missile defense plans haven’t left the country, otherwise Mycroft’s people would have heard about it.** Despite what people think, we do still have a Secret Service.  
>  JOHN: Yeah, I know. I’ve met them.  
>  SHERLOCK: **Which means whoever stole the memory stick can’t sell it or doesn’t know what to do with it. My money’s on the latter.** We’re here.  
>  JOHN: Where? ([x](http://arianedevere.livejournal.com/46716.html))

The first line’s pretty interesting because at St. Bart’s, Sherlock was sure the missile plans _had_ left the country:

> SHERLOCK: Missile plans are out of the country now. Nothing we can do about it. ([x](http://arianedevere.livejournal.com/46716.html))

But the second line explains why he changed his mind. He realized the person that stole the missile plans had the exact same problem as Miss Wencelsas: they didn’t know what to do with them.

> MISS WENCESLAS: … But I didn’t know how to go about convincing the world the picture was genuine. It was just an idea – a spark which he blew into a flame. ([x](http://arianedevere.livejournal.com/46716.html))

So now we know how Sherlock figured out the missile plans were part of the same game that all the other crimes had been. Maybe Sherlock would’ve gotten around to the missile plans, maybe he wouldn’t have, but now it’s a priority. Jim got exactly what he wanted. Texting Sherlock wasn’t working, so he made John do it instead until Sherlock caught on.

> SHERLOCK: … The only mystery is this: why is my brother so determined to bore me [about the Bruce Partington Plans] when somebody else is being so delightfully interesting? ([x](http://arianedevere.livejournal.com/46716.html))

Jim was trying to tell Sherlock they were the same case all along. But Sherlock couldn’t figure it out until the Bruce Partington case was farther along. Jim tried to text Sherlock about it to hint to him, but it didn’t work, so he went via John instead.

**Author's Note:**

> Transcribed from [my meta blog on tumblr](http://wellthengameover.tumblr.com/post/98950214132/jim-not-mycroft-texts-sherlock-and-john-in-tgg). Much more there.
> 
> If you're confused about Mycroft and Moriarty's relationship, go [here](http://loudest-subtext-in-television.tumblr.com/post/79041544289/m-theory-mycroft-moriarty-and-magnussens).


End file.
